Transpac – Race day 9 – Gybing dragrace

Oh yeah! We’ve all done the math, and as the numbers are coming together Seqouia is finally falling behind, while Azure is making an extraordinary attempt heading north to keep onto her lead. Latest weather forecasts will give us all the most thrilling end to this Transpac as an area of lighter winds are establishing just east of the Hawaiian Islands – leaving the fleet with 3 options. (1) Head north and pray to your favourite God for more winds than forecasted, (2) breach transpac protocol and start gybing multiple times through the ligther winds or (3) hope for the best and head a long way south where the sea temperature is higher and winds stronger.

We started gybing last night and have now made a total number of three gybes (probably already 1 more gybe than average in transpac) – so go figure out what we currently are planning to do….. For you sailing nerds our sailing configuration as we speak are S2, full main and stay sail, medium-light running backstays and quite a lot of kick. No record speeds or distances for tonight, as we’re reaching on TWA 160-170 in TWS around 10-14 knots. But great VMG!

Some of our followers are very curious about how a Wasa 55 aka Cubaneren is able to surf for days in speeds of 12-19 knots doing more than 200 nautical miles in 24 h. Well, here’s the receipt:
1) Bring your Wasa 55 to a shipyard in Mexico, near the U.S. border for hull cleaning and water sanding. Make sure you hang around so that the work gets done properly.
2) Ship all your belongings (including warm clothes) in a container to Hawaii
3) Bring in a racing crew from Norway to help trim and helm the boat
4) Stay patient in light winds and wait for the Pacific Ocean to get rocky – not only the swells. Takes about 5 days
5) Look for winds in the range 16-24 knots and waves about 10 feet, max 15. Lenght is not that important as Cubaneren is narrow and will penetrate the adjacent waves
6) Enjoy the ride and hang onto the stick while screaming «I love Cubaneren»
7) Evaluate and compare the ride to the most iconic downhill slopes like Wengen, Kitzbuel, Val Gardena, Kvitfjell or Holmsjordet
8) When the above is getting boring, start doing it in complete darkness at night. You can try it at home by using a blindfold. It’s surprisingly similar.

BREAKING NEWS!
When planning for the Transpac as well as leaving LA and heading into the Pacific Ocean we where made lots of promises similar to the Genesis where God created the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day – latest…. As you already know, that did not apply this year. Very dissapointing, as all other elements in the creation story, you know the ocean, fishes, other sea creatures and all that stuff became evidend even before the start. BUt things have changed! Today the German concrete fell apart and sunlight was shed on our white (now red) Norwegian bodies. A little bit to much of clothing came of, but by dinner we were able to agree on a common minimum dresscode.It would be to much to ask for one of those (mythical) spectacular sunsets of the Pacific Ocean on a day like this – and the sun obviously agreed and made sure to hide behind the clouds well in time before the set.

As most of the crew today have been enjoying the sun partly in shock, nothing much else really happened. Oh, except for the mysterious call on VHF channel 16 where an unidentified guy on an unidentified vehicle called Cubaneren by name. We replied his call, but he disappeared in silence – and there are no boats visible even on the AIS….. Our captain believe it was a guy rowing from US mainland to Hawaii who just wanted to have a chat, while the more educated marine personell believe we were spotted by an US submarine. We’ll probably never know….